Well it Friday 6th of February and I cannot believe that this fantastic experience is almost over. The theory is over, the drills are over, and the last camp game has been run. Tomorrow is a late start and an early finish, but we go out with a big bang at the Graduation dinner tomorrow night.
But the tension will still be in the air with most being very disappointed on Sunday morning when they are informed that they did not make the cut for PBUC and the chance to become a Pro Umpire. For some they will go off and work in independent leagues, high school or college ball, then some will return next year to go through it all again to give it another go.
With 100 students you are always going to get a wide variety of people, there is people here from 10+ countries, from people that have done independent and semi pro ball, to those that have never umpired a game and everything in between. There was a very embrassed Fiona in the class this morning when Edwin from Puerto Rico, pleasded with me to go home with him in front of the whole class!! But I can tell you that the apart from the language and cultural differences, the personalities and backgrounds of these people also varied.
Yesterday was 3 camp games...fortunate or not I was not scheduled. But it is still good to be able to sit on the side lines and watch the plays and run through what you think you would have done on each play. Today we listened to each of the foreign students on the umpiring experience, what they do for jobs etc. Yes I was asked to getup and talk about my experiences. we then headed outside for a camp game - which was to be the final. After lunch we did a bit of work on plate meetings, we had previously written up line up card - mine with names like - Crocodile hunter, Shark Bite and Kola Bear. It was then time to work on our non academy out/safe and third strike calls. This was all a bit of fun - you will have to wait til I get back to see if I have come up with something. But we were reminded that when doing the third strike call that we still need to know where the ball is!
Then it was an early call for the day - 3pm & the good news that we did not need to be at the ground til 10am tomorrow. Jim said to us, that maybe some of us needed to spend the afternoon cleaning up our rooms in readiness for departure - believe me some of the guys do need a couple hours for this activity!!
Stay tuned for an entry on the final day, graduation and my summary/s of the past five weeks...
Oh and by the way
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